Metacognition

Paving the Way Towards Lifewide and Lifelong Learning: Exploring and Fostering Metacognition for Learning and Transfer

Abstract: 

This study can be viewed against the backdrop of the future economy and the imperative of developing in students the future skills of the 21st century such as problem solving and critical thinking. There is burgeoning attention on equipping students with lifelong learning skills as a way of preparing students for the uncertain future. Scholars searching for new models of learning for the 21st century education have noted that learners are more successful at acquiring new skills and competencies when they have strong metacognitive abilities. Despite the importance ascribed to metacognition in educating 21st century learners, many students, including adolescents in Singapore, were reported to have poor awareness of their thinking process, limited abilities to apply metacognitive strategies, and low utilization of such strategies during learning. Noting this issue, this programmatic research was conceptualized with the fundamental goal of understanding and improving the quality of Singapore students’ metacognition as they play out in the local school context, and to foster students’ and teachers’ metacognitive competencies and practices. First, a comprehensive knowledge base of students’ metacognition will be developed, particularly in terms of utilizing varied approaches and tools to identify the nature of students’ metacognition and examining how students apply metacognitive strategies in the contexts of learning problem solving in formal (i.e., Mathematics and English Language) and nonformal curricula. Second, the various contextual factors that influence students’ metacognition, such as their personal attributes, their teachers, and their peers will be examined. Finally, drawing upon the knowledge base that we will generate in the early phases of the study, we will cultivate students’ metacognition using both direct and indirect approaches. Students’ metacognition will be enhanced directly through an intervention that involved explicitly teaching students to develop metacognitive awareness and ability to apply various metacognitive strategies. Our indirect approach to boost students’ metacognition will be done through a professional development programme that focuses on supporting teachers to develop a better and holistic understanding of metacognitive processes and strategies and guiding them to apply such enhanced understanding in teaching. To address the research objectives, this study adopts a multi-method, multi-stage and multi-perspective approach via 5 inter-related sub-studies in a span of 4 years. 

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: A/P Ngan Hoe Lee
Co-Lead PI: Dr Imelda Santos Caleon
Study PI: Dr Lee Yong Tay, Asst Prof Wei Peng Teo, Dr Imelda Santos Caleon, Dr Kit Ee Dawn Ng

Examining Students’ Metacognition and Teacher’s Metacognitive Teaching Practices and Strategies

Abstract: 

In Sub-Study 1 (“Examining Students’ Metacognition and Teacher’s Metacognitive Teaching Practices and Strategies”), the team seeks to conduct a broad scan of the nature of students’ metacognition and teachers’ metacognitive competence and practice and examine the relationships between metacognition and the other focal variables in the study (e.g., learning transfer, student engagement and achievement.).  This involves a survey of students’ metacognitive competence, the factors that affect students’ metacognition, and teachers’ metacognitive practices and metacognitive instructional strategies. Besides validating the multidimensional framework of metacognition using a large sample of students and teachers, the study aims to investigate the causes, consequences, and processes of metacognition using a range of predictive statistical models. This will provide insights into how and when students engage in metacognitive processes, the learning dispositions and the contexts that facilitate these engagements, and the relationships between metacognition and strategic mindset, and between metacognition and transfer. More important, Sub-Study 1 also identifies different metacognitive profiles of learners and teachers with respect to metacognition, differentiated across key attributes and correlates.  

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: Dr Tay Lee Yong 
Internal Co-PIs: Dr Melvin Chan, A/P Lee Ngan Hoe, Asst/P Teo Wei Peng, Dr Imelda Santos Caleon, Dr Ng Kit Ee, Dawn
External collaborators: Prof Michael Hast (IU University or Applied Sciences), Mr Melvin Chng (MOE), Mr Raymond Huang (MOE)

Examining Metacognitive Practices across Formal (English Language and Mathematics) and Non-Formal (CCA) Instructional Curricula

Abstract: 

Sub-Study 2 (“Examining Metacognitive Practices across Formal (English Language and Mathematics) and Non-Formal (CCA) Instructional Curricula”) offers an in-depth case investigation of students’ and teachers’ metacognitive practices in and across two or more seemingly different learning contexts, such as during lessons in different subject domains (Mathematics and English, and CCA). In particular, Sub-Study 2 seeks to find out how students purposefully direct their learning in and across the various settings by engaging with the three components of metacognition: metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation, and metacognitive experiences. Additionally, this study also hopes to shed light on how metacognitive teaching strategies and practices that are used by teachers to activate their students’ metacognitive competence. Adopting a multiple case study approach, with samples identified from homogeneous clusters identified in Sub-study 1, Sub-study 2 focuses on the use of (i) ethnographic tools to illuminate the complexities of students’ and teachers’ ways of engaging with metacognition in the school setting; (ii)  task-based tests that use both ‘think aloud protocol’ and neuroimaging (see Sub-Study 3 for more details) to generate deep insights into students’ metacognitive competence and practices; and (iii) grounded theory analysis. The team hopes to supplement the current limited understanding of metacognitive processes associated with non-formal activities, integrating fragmented ideas about metacognition across varied contexts, and shed light on aspects of metacognition that are general or specific to a domain.

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: A/P Ngan Hoe Lee
Internal Co-PIs: Dr Tay Lee Yong, Dr Melvin Chan, Asst/P Teo Wei Peng, Dr Imelda Santos Caleon, Dr Ng Kit Ee, Dawn
External Co-PIs: Mr Cedric Leong (MOE), Dr Tan Liang Soon (MOE), Mr Sim Joo Jin (MOE), Ms Gayatri Balakrishnan (MOE), Dr Loh Mei Yoke (MOE)
Internal Collaborator: Dr Johannis Auri bin Abdul Aziz
External Collaborators: Ms Serene Lai (MOE), Ms Ng May Gay (MOE)

Identifying Neural Correlates underpinning metacognitive processes during problem solving in English Language and Mathematics

Abstract: 

Sub-Study 3 (“Identifying Neural Correlates underpinning metacognitive processes during problem solving in English Language and Mathematics”) combines cutting-edge state-of-the-art functional neuroimaging, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and behavior observation techniques to understand neural processes of metacognitive strategies in secondary school students and examine how individual factors such as a child’s fluid intelligence moderate the neural activation patterns and metacognitive processes during problem-solving. It shares the same student samples and tasks with Sub-Study 2 and links neural correlates of metacognition with survey and interview results in Sub-studies 1 and 2 respectively. Sub-study 3, which, also provides a more objective and online means to assess the effectiveness of the instructional programme for Sub-Study 4. Given that neural correlates associated with metacognition has rarely been done in adolescents or school-age population, Sub-Study 3 hopes to address this key gap, providing neurological perspectives of metacognition that is highly contextualized to the local education context, and augmenting the current and growing emphasis on applying neuroscience research in education.

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: Asst/P Teo Wei Peng 
Internal Co-PIs: Dr Tay Lee Yong, Dr Melvin Chan, A/P Lee Ngan Hoe,  Dr Imelda Santos Caleon, Dr Ng Kit Ee, Dawn
External Collaborators: Prof Balázs Gulyas (NTU), Dr Fiona Cheam (MOE)

Development and Evaluation of a metacognition instruction programme (MIP) for Students

Abstract: 

Sub-Study 4 (“Development and Evaluation of a metacognition instruction programme (MIP) for Students”) blends the insights drawn from the preceding studies with those from the extant literature to craft an instructional programme focusing on improving students’ metacognition. It augments the extant literature with the primary goal of developing and evaluating a metacognition instruction programme (MIP), which focuses on the use of metacognitive prompting and modelling, to foster the development of metacognition and transfer of learning. It is our hope that modelling the use of metacognitive strategies, including prompts, can encourage students to continue using such strategies autonomously. This study, which employs an experimental design, will focus on secondary students who self-reported low levels of metacognition. In developing the MIP, the key elements and design principles drawn from our review of relevant literature will be included (e.g., metacognitive prompting and modelling). Additional elements (e.g., strategic mindset) that can facilitate the development of metacognitive competence and improve the uptake of metacognitive strategies will be identified from Sub-Study 2 and Sub-Study 3 and then incorporated into MIP. The study hypothesizes that the MIP will significantly improve students’ problem-solving performance, metacognition, and learning transfer. We also anticipate that the effects of MIP will be moderated by achievement, with students in the lower achievement bands benefiting more from the intervention.

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: Dr Imelda Santos Caleon
Internal Co-PIs: Dr Tay Lee Yong, Dr Melvin Chan, A/P Lee Ngan Hoe, Asst/P Teo Wei Peng, Dr Ng Kit Ee, Dawn, Dr Sally Ann Jones
External Co-PIs: Mr Cedric Leong (MOE), Mdm Low Leng (MOE),  Mr Sim Joo Jin (MOE), Ms Gayatri Balakrishnan (MOE), Dr Loh Mei Yoke (MOE)
External Collaborators: Ms Serene Lai (MOE), Asst/P Patricia Chen (University of Texas at Austin)

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Professional Development Programme in Metacognition (PDPM) for Teachers

Abstract: 

Sub-Study 5 (“Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Professional Development Programme in Metacognition (PDPM) for Teachers”) aims to develop a professional development programme in metacognition for teachers and to evaluate its impact on teachers’ conceptions of metacognition and their metacognitive instructional strategies. Drawing upon the insights from Sub-studies 1 to 4 to develop a professional development programme for teachers to improve their own metacognitive practices and also their metacognitive instructional strategies. A multi-site, multi-case design will be employed to understand the impact of PDPM. The study allows for a more holistic, multi-dimensional, multi-perspective, and in-depth approach in designing the PDPM anchored in the strengths of the Singapore curriculum, but also sets the stage for a sustained, concerted approach in teacher professional development. It hopes to enhance the applicability of the PDPM model while still maintaining the nuances of subject-specific needs in the incorporation of metacognitive instructional strategies in Singapore classrooms.

Funding body: Education Research Funding Programme (Programmatic Grant)

Lead PI: Dr Ng Kit Ee, Dawn 
Internal Co-PIs: Dr Tay Lee Yong, Dr Melvin Chan, A/P Lee Ngan Hoe, Asst/P Teo Wei Peng, Dr Imelda Santos Caleon
External Co-PIs: Mr Cedric Leong (MOE), Dr Tan Liang Soon (MOE), Mr Sim Joo Jin (MOE), Prof Wu Longkai (Central China Normal University)
External Collaborator: Ms Serene Lai (MOE)